Powers & Santola, LLP

Albany Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Lawyers

Powers and Santola, LLP included in 2007 Super Lawyers - New York (PDF)

Medical Mistakes • Catastrophic Injuries

Since the firm's formation in 1987, Powers & Santola, LLP, has built its reputation for excellence by devoting all of our attention to a limited number of very seriously injured clients. To schedule a free initial consultation regarding a car accident, surgical or emergency room error, or workplace injury in upstate New York, contact us.

Our Clients: Seriously Injured

Most of our clients have suffered from the permanent effects of traumatic brain injuries, cerebral palsy, spinal cord injuries, amputees, severe burns or blindness, or have lost family members who died in serious accidents. The causes of their injuries and deaths are as varied as the people themselves. We represent people whose injuries have been caused by birth-related events, medical, hospital and nursing home malpractice, defective and unsafe products, construction site and work-related accidents, explosions, governmental negligence and inadequate security, as well as airplane, train, truck and auto accidents.

Our Goal: Maximum Compensation

Our mission is simple: to obtain the maximum financial recovery each client is entitled to receive. We do this by fully developing the facts and circumstances that make each person's case unique. We recognize, however, that a serious injury changes a person's life in ways that cannot be addressed by money alone. We use our knowledge and resources to help each of our clients restore independence, dignity and meaning to their life.

How are we different?

1. We don't accept most cases.

Most personal injury law firms measure their success by the volume of cases they handle. We don't.

We don't believe that the role of an ethical lawyer is to help people obtain money that they're not legitimately entitled to. We believe that the legal system should only be used to hold wrongdoers accountable to those whom they have injured and to prevent similar injuries from occurring in the future.

We believe that we can best serve our clients, while enhancing the legal system, by only accepting clients who have meritorious cases and whose lives have been significantly altered by the wrongdoing of another. This allows us to concentrate all of our efforts and resources on those cases in which our work can make a significant and meaningful difference in our clients' lives.

We believe that our reputation for only accepting, preparing and prosecuting substantial, meritorious cases enhances the credibility and value of the cases that we do accept, thereby benefiting all of our clients.

2. We prepare all our clients' cases for trial to verdict.

Some personal injury law firms accept cases with the intention of settling them without going to trial. We don't.

Lawsuits are expensive to prepare and become significantly more expensive when they are tried. Some law firms do not have the resources, or willingness, to expend the funds necessary to properly prepare a case. Other firms accept a large number of cases, without regard to merit, with the intent of settling many of them for "nuisance value." Some law firms need to settle cases quickly in order to pay the monthly costs of their expensive advertising campaigns. Still other firms simply don't have the trial experience necessary to be able to comfortably take their client's case to court and, if necessary, to verdict and avoid doing so whenever possible.

Insurance companies know which law firms will settle without fighting for, and obtaining, full and fair compensation for their clients. Insurance companies also know which law firms have the experience and resources to take every case that they accept to verdict. That is why we prepare every injury or wrongful death case we accept for trial to verdict and not for settlement and will only settle a case for the full and fair amount that our client is entitled to receive.

Because insurance companies do not like to try substantial and meritorious cases against skilled, experienced, well-prepared, and well-funded lawyers, the cases of nearly all of the clients who we represent ultimately settle for a fair and appropriate sum. We just never take that for granted!

A Team Approach

Each client is important to us and receives our immediate and ongoing personal attention. Our firm uses a team approach, with two ttorneys, a paralegal and legal secretary assigned to each client throughout our representation of them. No matter when a client calls, there is always someone available who personally knows their case and can answer their questions and address their concerns.

Our Results

The attorneys at Powers and Santola, LLP, have a long history of successfully representing a wide variety of injured people in difficult and complex lawsuits, with a substantial number of multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements.

Leaders In Our Profession

The founding partners in the firm, John Powers and Dan Santola, have been repeatedly named by their peers as two of the "THE BEST LAWYERS IN AMERICA." Both have also been repeatedly included in the Martindale-Hubbell "BAR REGISTER OF PREEMINENT LAWYERS," an honor reserved exclusively for those who have received the highest rating from other practicing attorneys and members of the judiciary. John and Dan have also been repeatedly recognized in the following Marquis publications: "WHO'S WHO IN THE WORLD," "WHO'S WHO IN AMERICA" and "WHO'S WHO IN AMERICAN LAW." The Standards of Admission for these publications are: the position of responsibility held and the level of achievement attained by the individual. "To be selected, a person must have attained conspicuous achievement."

Our attorneys have served as Presidents, Directors and Governors of, and have years of affiliation with, many national, state and local bar associations and organizations including: The Association of Trial Lawyers of America; the American Board of Trial Advocates; the New York State Bar Association; the New York State Trial Lawyers Association; the New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers; the Capital District Trial Lawyers Association; and the Albany and Onondaga County Bar Associations. They have also been appointed by Chief Judges of New York State to serve as members of "blue ribbon" panels to improve the justice system.

Our attorneys lecture at legal and judicial conferences throughout the United States and at law schools throughout New York State. They contribute articles to professional journals and publications and have written books and chapters of books on a variety of legal topics.
To schedule a free initial consultation regarding a serious personal injury or fatal accident in New York, contact us by phone or email.